University of Cambridge Will Examine Its Relationship to Slavery

People walk into the quadrant of Clare College at Cambridge University, October 23, 2010. (REUTERS/Paul Hackett)

The University of Cambridge in the UK is launching a two-year study to identify how the university contributed and benefitted from the slave trade during the colonial era.

The study will be conducted by two full-time post-doctoral researchers at Cambridge’s Centre of African Studies. It will explore how the prestigious university may have reinforced race-based thinking between the 18th and early 20th centuries.

Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Stephen Toope announced that an eight-member advisory board would oversee the research. Toope said it was “only right” that Cambridge should delve into its history and expose any profits made from coerced labor.

“We cannot change the past, but nor should we seek to hide from it,” Toope said, according to The Guardian. “I hope this process will help the university understand and acknowledge its role…

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